Just bought a Rocktron Prophesy

[Bert]

I like my Piranha so much I figured I may as well give the Prophesy a shot.

I know there are a few other Prophesy users here on the forum. Any tips? This is a version I.. is it worth downloading the version II presets or is that just a gimmick? I don't have it yet, but should arrive soon!

[Cleveland Metal]

Big difference between the two... Prophesy is pretty intense... Very deep with the EQ's etc... Play with it a long time before you make any decisions.

[Bert]

Big difference between the two... Prophesy is pretty intense... Very deep with the EQ's etc... Play with it a long time before you make any decisions.

That's cool, I'd be disappointed if they were too similar. I like dialing stuff in myself, which is why I am not so sure I'll find the version 2 presets useful.

[Cleveland Metal]

Off the cuff, I think you'll find the Piranha more aggressive. The Prophesy has that as well, harder to find in it, and more refined. Joel Drabicki has/had one for a long time and could tell you a lot.

I will say, the way to get a good aggressive tight chunk out of them, is to pull most of the bass out of the pre-eq, and add lots of extra bass in the post-eq. THAT is a huge trick to get more crunch with those and the Voodu Valves...

[Freyr]

I've been wanting to get one for awhile now, but haven't scrounged all the cash together yet... (still deciding on a poweramp, which I'll buy first)

I do have a question though... do they have enough gain? Or is that a rthorical question?

[Bert]

I've been wanting to get one for awhile now, but haven't scrounged all the cash together yet... (still deciding on a poweramp, which I'll buy first)

I do have a question though... do they have enough gain? Or is that a rthorical question?

I'll let you know when I get it and have some time to put it through the paces. The Piranha has monstrous gain, so if it's anywhere close to that, it will be more than enough!

[Cleveland Metal]

IMO, I was never quite satisfied with the gain. I like a raw edgy gain, and it seems to have a very refined sounding gain.

The Piranha has more gain right off the bat. But, I do think it is in the Prophecy somewhere..

The thing I will say, is I Never had time to tweak it. And it is VERY tweakable. And, I have to reason that I never liked the Voodu Valve either till I spent alot of time with it and when I did, I fell in love with it.

I know the prophesy is considerably more versatile than the Vodu for sure. Pretty sure you'll be able to dial it in for nice gain. Try the method I mentioned earlier, that was God mode for the Voodu...

I think you will enjoy it.

[Ozz666]

It's the first preamp I bought back in the late 90's, and it's the only one I still own today. I run mine with a BBE 422a and I run an EMG PA-2 in the front.....I still love it to this day!

[akoch]

Welcome to the club! I've owned one for many years and I don't see it going...

For one, AFAIK the only difference between I and II is the presets, and plastic face-film with different colors. Internally the Prophesy went through some minor revisions, like different ADC/DACs but it is pretty much neglectable. Not a lot of RD went into it since the introduction back then, unfortunately. I think it is the best digital pream up to this day, and done differently than most of the todays stuff. If you trace the guts, you can see that the guys really came up with a very smart way to make the sound - smart compression, light tube overdrive into the ADC and then full digital processing. Great combination of analog and digital worlds.

[MOSHWITZ]

i've often thought about picking one of these up. but for one reason or another always passed, i might have to check into it again
MOSH ON
DAVE

[Bert]

The Prophesy arrived yesterday and I've been playing with it a bit. the short story is this: I don't think I'll be giving up the Piranha any time soon.

The prophesy is a different beast entirely. I guess I was hoping it would basically be the piranha preamp + high quality effects and wildly tailorable EQ. Unfortunately the preamp is its own beast....and one that doesn't seem to agree with me all that much. don't get me wrong, it has some really nice tones, but it lacks the punch and tightness that makes me so fond of the Piranha (& also the JMP-1 which I also like a lot.) My biggest complaint is the lack of definition and punch in the lower registers. For exmaple it just seems to flub out a bit with palm muting & chuga chugging. Doesn't quite feel like a "real" amp does.

The good points: The megadrive channel has a ton of gain and you can get some great shreddy lead tones out of it. The texas blues channel is also pretty nice, but it still lacks the "spank" of the real deal.

These are just initial impressions. I will spend more time with it and see if I can tweak it to my satisfaction. I may also need to take it to practice and see what it sounds like in a band environment.

[Bert]

Just recorded this layered lead over mpigott's latest backing track from the mp3 section to demonstrate the shreddy type tones you can get. I used the Prophesy direct from its compensated outputs. (Click the word "this" above to listen.) The direct outs are definitely better than the Piranha's.

[Cleveland Metal]

For exmaple it just seems to flub out a bit with palm muting & chuga chugging.

You try this to tighten it up?

the way to get a good aggressive tight chunk out of them, is to pull most of the bass out of the pre-eq, and add lots of extra bass in the post-eq. THAT is a huge trick to get more crunch with those and the Voodu Valves...

[Bert]

No Cleve, I haven't tried that yet, but I fully intend to. Sounds like that might be just what I need to do.

[Cleveland Metal]

yeah, on the Voodu, I removed I think almost all the pre-eq bass and raised the post, and that REALLY tightened things up and gave a nice aggresive edge to the low end stuff. I never liked the Voodu till I did that.

BTW, the leads on that clip sound nice. Nicer lead sound than the Voodu Valve I'm thinking.